With the baseball season ending this weekend, the Oakland A’s will also bid farewell to the city and Oakland Coliseum, which they called home for fifty-seven years.
The A’s departure for Las Vegas also saddened many fans, as no major professional sports teams will represent the city of Oakland, as the Raiders (NFL) and Warriors (NBA) also departed the city for Las Vegas and San Francisco, respectively.
John Fisher, A’s Team Owner to Fans: The A’s are part of the fabric of Oakland, the East Bay, and the entire Bay Area. I know there is great disappointment, even bitterness. I can tell you this from my heart: we tried. Staying in Oakland was our goal. It was our mission, and we failed to achieve it. And for that, I am genuinely sorry.
Many fans feel betrayed that enough wasn’t done to keep the team in Oakland, between an owner not doing enough and politics getting in the way of approving a new stadium. After failed approval from the city, MLB team owners on November 16, 2023, unanimously approved the A’s proposed move to Las Vegas and the construction of a 33,000-seat new stadium, which will be built on the former site of the Las Vegas Tropicana hotel and casino.
While the new stadium is being constructed, the A’s will play in Sutter Health Park (home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats) in West Sacramento, California, from 2025 to 2028.
To show their disapproval of the move to Las Vegas, many fans this season wore green t-shirts that had the word “SELL” printed on them and made chants towards Fisher to “sell the team.” They also held signs that read, “Sell The Team… Not Our Memories,” and “The A’s Belong in Oakland.” To commemorate the stadium, 25,000 mini-coliseums will be given away at the last game, but after the seventh inning, when fans are exiting due to concerns, they may throw them on the field during the game.
The A’s have a winning history in Oakland, winning the World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974 and then again in 1989. They also succeeded under manager Bob Melvin, who led the team from 2011 to 2021 before leaving to manage the San Diego Padres in 2022. He amassed 853 wins managing the A’s, leading the team to seven postseason appearances and four division titles.
The A’s also became famous for the movie Moneyball, which chronicled Billy Beane’s use of sabermetrics and the financial constraints he had to put a winning team on the field in 2002. With a budget of only $41 million, Beane relied heavily on statistics and signing undervalued players to amass a team that went on to win the American League West title. Beane also expressed his feelings to San Francisco Chronicle Baseball Columnist Susan Slusser about the A’s leaving Oakland: “I think it’s starting to hit me, that finality of the last game at the Coliseum. As we creep towards that day, I am becoming more nostalgic, something I never thought I was. There were some outstanding teams and many excellent guys I got to know professionally and personally.”
In closing, Fisher’s final comments to fans in his letter read: “Looking ahead, I hope you will join our beloved A’s as we move forward on this amazing journey. I hope I will see you again sporting the Green and Gold. And I hope we will make you proud.”
That’s what A’s fans hoped during negotiations to keep the team in Oakland.
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NOTE: John Fisher’s full letter to Oakland A’s fans can be found here.
